The Eternal Landlords of the Philippines

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[@benolinger373]

Slight correction: abaca is a banana relative grown for fibre/textile called Manilla Hemp, not an actual hemp

[@ntabile]

Sir, are you thinking of that hemp?😁

[@small3687]

I wish they would allow the growing of hemp in the Philippines. The weather there is pretty perfect for it and they could become a global exporter.

[@ricardokowalski1579]

Thank you, kind sir. I now know one more interesting thing about the Genus Musa. 👍 Respectfully.

[@tilapiadave3234]

@@small3687 Just what the world needs ,, more BRAIN DEAD people

[@InevitableTruth.]

​@@small3687 advance ka cguro mag-isip.

[@al_caponeh6185]

This reminded me of land reform in Peru. The turning point for it was in 1968 and it forever changed everything here. It would be great to cover land reform in other countries like South American nations as , Chile, Brazil, Peru, etc.

[@Agent-ie3uv]

But this channel is ASIANometry 👀

[@al_caponeh6185]

@@Agent-ie3uv BUT HAS SEEN COUNTRIES OUTSIDE ASIA 👀

[@hijodelsoldeoriente]

It would make sense since The Philippines was colonized by Spain for more than 300 years and the models of government are often similar to that of other Spanish Colonies. Others even still call some of those lands haciendas with their Don and Doña. This is also the reason why Filipino culture is peculiar among asians. It is fundamentally hispanoasiatico.

[@WallNutBreaker524]

This channel is named asionometry for a reason , though he may make a 2nd channel , who knows.

[@WallNutBreaker524]

@@al_caponeh6185 your comment makes no sense 👀

[@pacquing]

Excellent video that succinctly explains land reform. Thank you for it. Land reform's failure probably explains: 1. a good part of my own family history; and 2. why Filipinos can succeed anywhere in the world except the Philippines.

[@leadedfeather]

anywhere but home. :-/

[@TheVineOfChristLives]

Not true. Technology is the great game changer for Filipinos in the Philippines. New paradigms.

[@pacquing]

@@TheVineOfChristLives I hope you're right. Looking forward to Philippine unicorns and world-class companies ASAP. Not interested in continuing poverty.

[@ralphrestubog5519]

@@TheVineOfChristLives more like new paradigms for exploitation.

[@TheVineOfChristLives]

@@ralphrestubog5519can you enlighten me with your point of view on this? Why do you predicate your idea with the presupposition of victimization with regard to technology?

[@TrevorsMailbox]

God this is such a great channel. Dude, props, seriously. Sooooo good. And I haven't ever seen another channel like it. I've learned so much about Asia and Chipmaking.

[@Coolsomeone234]

Plus one

[@allenmaudiln]

It might be the best channel on KZbin honestly. So insightful and effortful, no annoying bullshit, and frequently updated.

[@Larez121]

@@allenmaudiln yup just facts and objectivity.

[@alice_agogo]

@@allenmaudiln yeah channels who keep asking to like share and subscribe won't get a like share and subscription from me

[@alfonsopalacios2725]

This is an issue that's often overlooked. Media coverage is non-existent. The average Filipino, except the farmers, don't know how serious this problem is. We are literally kneecaping our economic development for the sake of preserving these landowners in power.

[@Deng_Xiaoping_is_my_father]

@@julm7744 I agree, this is because modern day Filipinos are unfortunately accustomed to being subjugated by the ruling classes. Filipinos need to understand that in order to improve the country, one must assert his self-determination by any means necessary. However, Filipinos preserve cultural behaviors that diminish any possibility of abolishing the status quo (e.g., “being content”, “laziness”, etc.)

[@realtalk6195]

The average Filipino voted in Marcos Jr despite the legacy of the dictatorship and corruption of Marcos Sr. He's also partly to blame for Philippine's industrial failure, which resulted in the burgeoning steel industry to also decline. Now you have his son who's friendly to China, despite China literally annexing PH's maritime territory in the north. Duterte had run on a "tough on China" platform only to end up being pro-China once in power. He then allowed Chinese casino and online gambling companies to set up shop, thereby increasing China's economic and political leverage over PH.

[@richardarriaga6271]

@@julm7744 It's not just Filpinos. Many Americans prefer people who make inequality and overall economy worse. See the lack of support for universal healthcare, infrastructure, and education/vocational investment.

[@stevebell4906]

This is the Conservative dream...keep the poor ..stupid...(Uneducated)....Keep them hungry and and use religion...

[@belldrop7365]

@@julm7744 It's the colonial mentality. Because despite being independent on paper, they're still under others like in the past half millennia and they've gotten used to it. Besides, even if they rise up in rebellion, they'll just be the next Argentina, crushed by the ruling rich people.

[@totifernandez9532]

Asianometry, you made a well-researched video. However you failed to mention the massive conversion of of productive agricultural lands into residential subdivisions and "farmlot" subdivisions. These "farmlot" subdivisions are subdivisions where affluent retirees and families own a second home on a big lot and practice "farming" during weekends. These are schemes to avoid CARP. As a result the country lost a lot of agricultural capacity and became a net food importer. The country also had a massive glut of subdivision lots, which contributed to the Asian Crisis in the Philippines.

[@geneballay9590]

Very interesting and educational. You have provided a relevant history on an issue that I have often wondered about, and then by comparison to the (different) routes taken in other countries, shown what the consequences were. Thank you for all the work, and for sharing.

[@jpcarballo]

This is very well done. There simply isn't enough time to explain all the relevant historical details in this format. Someone in the comments mentioned the BOXER CODEX. Yes it recorded a prior sociopolitical system in the Philippines before the Spanish arrived but this was recorded elsewhere. What's relevant is when the Magellan expedition landed in Cebu and managed to convert the ruling elite (ie. Rajah Humabon and other tribal leaders), we can assume that part of the deal was the elite would not be required to pay tribute to the King of Spain going forward. And this was fair since Magellan managed to convince Humabon to waive the trading fees he normally charged Chinese and Arab traders for conducting commerce in Cebu. The later Principalia included a class of elites who were not required to pay tribute to Spain. This is all moot however because as also mentioned in the comments, the land owned by these original elites have either been grabbed by the Spanish government after rebellions or were donated to the Church after the death of a landowning elite in the 300 years since. I was in elementary school in the Philippines when we first studied the benefits of CARP and a few years later in college, we were studying the failures of CARP. Very simply, Landowner hands the land title to a farmer. The farmer now has to procure resources to till the land. While he waits for the government to grant assistance, the clock is ticking. Planting season doesn't wait. So he goes right back to one person he knows has a) a stock of seeds, fertilizers, etc and b) can lend him those on a dime - the landowner. Then while he's sowing and planting his farm, he needs to feed his family. Then, c) he goes back to the landowner and loans a sack of rice every week or so. When harvest time comes, the rice has to be harvested and dried. If it's raining, the farmer has to rent time at a drying facility or his rice will rot. After drying, the rice has to be milled. Not just once, since there are a few steps to clean the rice, separate the hulls, then the bran and separate and polish to a white kernel. Then it has to be graded. In places with no Co-Op , who owns the local drying facility and rice mill? Rinse and repeat everywhere else. Those with resources want to keep their captive markets as-is. Because of this, agriculture has stagnated when it could have industrialized and taken advantage of abundant water and volcanic soil. The Philippines' IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) has pioneered strains that helped other countries grow rice more efficiently. But while the Philippines still exports rice, they are importing cheaper rice from Asian neighbors. Same thing with Sugarcane. They also used to export sugar until Thailand and Australia industrialized their sugarcane production and brought the prices down.

[@AbuSous2000PR]

very informative so sad thx for sharing

[@nunyabiznes33]

I'm Filipino and regarding rice, we can never have the same output as Vietnam or Thailand. Their arable land in their floodplains are massive and PH's is probably not even a quarter of that size and those are easily irrigated. Aside from that, we get wrecked multiple times a year by typhoons. Those same typhoons would be reduced to rainshowers by the time they get to VN and TH. We'd probably never be rice sufficient, especially if we keep to this population growth rate.

[@神崎狂三]

@@nunyabiznes33 To be fair, we also never tried modernizing and mechanizing our rice agriculture either.

[@nunyabiznes33]

@@神崎狂三 government don't want to invest and the farmers are left to their own. Whenever I go to the province and see half the road used to dry rice, I just shake my head.

[@randomly_random_0]

@@nunyabiznes33 we became rice sufficient in the 70s. though, there are some truths in your opinion.

[@reighguevarra114]

This is a very good topic in Law and Agriculture. Most of the legislations involving land reform in the Philippines always fail because most of the politicians were also land owners. As a filipino, I approve this content. The harsh reality that we must recognize, and a problem that we really need to fix.

[@particion4521]

The most infamous example of this is the province of Negros Occidental. The entire province was built up as a giant sugar plantation where hacienderos owned massive amounts of land while "sakada" migrant workers from nearby islands would labour under them for a pittance, this created a literal feudal system that still somewhat exists to this day. Needless to say that whenever the sugar industry wasn't doing too well, the entire island suffered for it. There is an interesting contrast between Negros and the neighbouring province of Iloilo which has gradually seen some development in recent years. In Negros, massive tracts of land are owned by a handful of haciendero families, whereas in Iloilo, a lot of small farmers own small pieces of land.

[@mosesracal6758]

Its so bad that when the Negros Island decided to become their own province instead of being split into 2 halves administered by 2 regions, it failed miserably in the financial sense as it just cant sustain itself without the help of the more economically prosperous Iloilo and Cebu.

[@jpcarballo]

@@mosesracal6758 There was a movement in the 1980's and which was continued by Gov. Lacson of Negros Occidental and Gov. Macias of Negros Oriental during the 1990's under then President Fidel V Ramos to merge Oriental and Occidental, but NEDA disapproved it due to lack of funds. (??!!) See “One Negros Island Region: A Psychohistory” by Dr. Earl Jude Paul L. Cleope, Silliman University, 2014". Negros Island was underdeveloped back in the 1870's and suffered from frequent Moro Pirate raids. There's still a church tower standing in Dumaguete City that was used as a lookout for these raids. Anyway, because of these attacks, the Diocese of the island petitioned for help and since Iloilo and Cebu were both more prosperous, the protection and administration of Negros was delegated to each, based on proximity. (Sounds like how Mexico used to govern the Philippines before 1821). In 1890, a Royal decree split Negros into 2.

[@catzor4795]

​@@mosesracal6758Not true. Negros was deprived of using its taxes on reinvesting in its self. Cebu and Iloilo are the products of Negros. Marcos also took the chance to remove power from the elites in Negros via DAR. He literally sent his cronies to steal land.

[@camilo1972]

This exact story has repeated itself throughout all of Spain's former colonies. The Mexican Revolution was fought in great part over this issue, Colombia's violence can be traced to this. It's basically strict social stratification preventing individuals from establishing their own means. Feudalism, i.e.

[@moRaaOTAKU]

yes here in Colombia the new president just started addressing the inequality of land

[@rauldempaire5330]

@@moRaaOTAKU Yes, the "cocalero revolution"........

[@moRaaOTAKU]

@@rauldempaire5330 hopefully they make cocaine legal and regulated

[@beorntwit711]

Basically, every colonized and underdeveloped country from WWII onwards, found itself in this situation. Rarely did reforms go well. Sometimes it was coups (Guatemala), sometimes it was corruption (Zimbabwe), and sometimes it was communism (nationalization specifically, like in USSR or China). The last is especially ironic, since these regimes tend to have very radical land reforms that greatly aid equality. Its mostly a sad story.

[@camilo1972]

@@beorntwit711 I happen to think that the best thing that the Chinese did was get rid of their landlord strata. A seemingly unsolvable problem, solved. Couldn't have moved forward with "poverty eradication" without first removing the biggest obstacles. As for the USSR, whatever their faults (and there were many), they took a feudal and backwards society into the modern age in 4 decades. None of these two instances, USSR / China, could have been done in a laissez faire capitalist context, because the the speed at which business models evolve is glacial - just ask 19th century African-Americans about this.

[@hmhbanal]

The "Principalía" also refers to precolonial families or chieftains who submitted to the Spanish crown. For example, Filipino families with indigenous names like Gatchalian (Gat Saligan), Soliman, Macapagal, Malana, etc.

[@gabyacat7050]

Hacienda Luisita is not owned by the Aquino Side of Corazon C. Aquino but her maiden name side, the Cojuangcos whose family’s history is intertwined with the history of the PH. Her cousin, the late Danding Cojuangco, owns a huge percentage of the land and also used to own San Miguel Corporation(SMC). A large brewery and one of the big conglomerates here in the PH(they own SMC tollways and is now financing and managing the construction of the latest metro MRT7). Also to note there are numerous SMC facilities and factories near and in Hacienda Luisita. He was also part of the rumored “Rolex 12” of Ferdinand Marcos.

[@conradojavier7547]

What gonna happend to her Family, now that Her, & Her Son(Noynoy/Bengino III) are Dead?

[@shellshockedgerman3947]

@@conradojavier7547 Nothing lmao. They continue to exploit the Filipinos like the Marcoses.

[@gabyacat7050]

@@conradojavier7547 I believe that the eldest son of her youngest daughter is now residing at the farm in Hacienda Luisita. As of current some of the senior members of the Cojuangco family are in government position themselves either as representatives or governors. The one that’s currently calling the shots at SMC is the Ang family, specifically Ramon Ang and his son.

[@snarveien1853]

Your facts are wrong in the beginning and wrong til the end. First of all, Danding was already rich, coming from rich family, but compared to other hacienderos-OLIGARCHS like the LOPEZES, he chose to work with the government. Anyway, the OLIGARCH LOPEZES should have an entire documentary on how they borrowed and borrowed a loooot of money from the government bank and never paid. And how they used their media to protect their political careers and businesses and hide secrets. But it is so twisted that they are viewed as BETTER PEOPLE lol Hacienda Luisita is not of Danding Cojuanco. It does not mean their relatives, then it is his? lol. Danding Cojuanco had his own venture. lol. Also the stock holder of Hacienda Luisita are all siblings of Cory Aquino. Ano to? Dahil pinsan, sa kanya na rin? lol To be fair to Danding Cojuanco, he was smarter than many hacienderos back then because he listened to Marcos that the heyday of sugar bonanza with the US will end soon. It is not a secret that the Sugar Agreement will end, but many hacienderos did not listen. He ventured to other crops because logic will simply tell you that the sugar business bonanza will die. Marcos did tell the hacienderos to venture to other crops because the sugar agreement will end. Anyway, with the end of sugar agreement, there will be greater competition, therefore, the price will be lowered. Thus, there was famine in Negros Occidental. The famine in my province was not because of Marcos, it was the fault of greedy hacienderos who just want to capitalize on sugar and they ignored other important crops and the upcoming end of sugar trade agreement with the US. If they were smart Hacienderos, they could have transitioned to other crops, but they did not. There is an international research done by outsiders about this, who had a more balance analysis, unfortunately it is not discussed in local media or platform. Also, it has been more than a decade that San Miguel is no longer in the control of Cojuanco, but sure he still had a stake. The biggest stock holder since been is Inigo Zobel, which is a closer friend to the current Marcos. Although, the guy just want to stay in the background. lol. But I do not think anyone can question the wealth of the Zobel kasi sa SPAIN pa lang, even until now, dami pa rin nilang properties and businesses. Baka naman may mag CRONY na naman ditong tenge. Also, since San Miguel needs products from Sugar Cane, of course they have to be closed to SUGAR MILLS. You are a stpid if you have a beer and softdrink businesses and you will locate your plant elsewhere. Alcohol and Carbon Dioxide are both needed products from San Miguel products, other than sugar. Anyway, because of these good relations of Ilocos Government and San Miguel, San Miguel had been a big part of why Ilocos Norte's agriculture industry is better than other places. San Miguel buys most of the Ilocos Norte produced, through the help of their provincial government. Ilocos Norte plan their products, based on the need of the market and what crops will give their farmers better income. That is why, even if Ilocos Norte's biggest industry is agricultural, their POVERTY INCIDENCE/ MAGNITUDE OF POOR is low. They are in the top ten region with least Magnitude of Poor among 87 or 89 regions. Also, the problem with us Filipinos is that you label every businessmen who chose to work with the government as OLIGARCH-CRONY. There is a limit to using it. If I am a Tycoon, of course having a good relationship with the government is a top goal. And if I am the government, ofc I will use these rich people to finance massive projects and development without drowning my country in debt. Example: Other government like that of Sweden act like a middle man or coordinator between big corporations to enrich the lives of common people. But many Filipinos are small minded with victim mindsets. I AM POOR, OTHERS ARE ULTRA RICH. THEREFORE I AM THEIR VICTIM BY THESE RICH PEOPLE. It is 2022. Get over it.

[@snarveien1853]

@@gabyacat7050 Another chismoso. lol. Ramon Ang has NO family relation with Cojuanco. Also, Ramon Ang is not calling the shots, although is the the face of san miguel, aka CEO. The biggest stock holder tho that is actually calling the shots is Inigo Zobel, who is in NO WAY related to the cojuanco. lol. Minsan kasi taas taasan nyo naman pakikipag socialite ninyo para masapak kayo ng realidad. Sometimes, the super ultra rich do not actually plaster their faces and names around for you to consume. Most often, they have a representative.

[@joerionis5902]

More Filipinos ought to know this. They need to understand that their problems as a nation are systemic. It's something that can not be blamed to any great villain and can not be solved by any great hero. We really need to move forward

[@asianstuff8619]

Agreed. This is one of the reasons why the Philippines is divided politically.

[@golong1343]

Many of the awardees of land reform have sold their land; their lands do not yield much nowadays. There are few areas that have irrigation system. Much of those lands have relied on rain for watering crops. Filipinos and mostly Chinese descent and chinese businessmen have allowed the proliferation of contraband crops to flow inside the country and flooded the market with cheap products to the prejudice of those farmers.

[@jasonjames4254]

True! Land reform programs have zero chance of lasting success unless the government first puts infrastructure in place to ensure the success of poor farmers. Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before the land goes right back to the elite who previously owned it.

[@aymane.bencheikh]

Asianometry never disappoints.

[@Loweren]

Speaking about land, it would be interesting to learn about successes and failures of georgism-inspired land value tax in e.g. Singapore, Taiwan and Russia

[@beorntwit711]

Seconded!

[@e1n17g13l1i14sh]

Third 🎉

[@sidewinder3422]

Yep, All the conglomerates here in PH relies on captive markets and find the easiest way to earn cash, during the BPO boom, Indian elites built their OWN homegrown BPO firms, Tata TCS, Wipro, HCL etc. Here in the Philippines? the elite fckers focus instead on building "IT Business Parks" Real Estate and then invited foreign outsourcing firms to setup shop and then they collect rent, easy life 👌.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

then everyone wants to be one of those elite fckers

[@MgaTalunanKayo]

Monopolies always crush any attempt at competition.

[@kimeli]

@@MgaTalunanKayo its not monopoly if more than 2 companies are in the business.

[@1aaroncarl]

Exactly. Philippines and India have no solid and reliable industries, always service industries like BPO. It's a way to maintain power

[@sidewinder3422]

@@1aaroncarl Actually India does have a lot of other industries, for example they have a fairly large automotive industry like Tata Motors(they even own Jaguar and Land Rover) and Mahindra(owns Ssangyong motors of South Korea) so aside from local production and original designs, they even own foreign brands. India is also a powerhouse in Integrated Circuits/Chip design, these chips might be manufactured in Taiwan and South Korea but a lot of them are designed by local Indian firms or R&D arms of US companies based in India. Also do you know that airframe subassemblies of US F-15 fighters and Apache attack helicopters are made by Indian companies under contract from Boeing, that's an aerospace ecosystem right there. Philippines has none of these. I'm a filipino btw. Indian elites are far more industrialist and forward looking than their Philippine counterparts. And that's just sad.

[@TheExpressionless1]

You could make an entire playlist with nothing but Philippine fuckups

[@Schroefdoppie]

I keep saying it, the Philippines should have been a powerhouse already. They have ALL the resources to make it happen.

[@rock_ok]

+1for intelligence

[@mau345]

@@Schroefdoppie resource will never be a key and at some point it becomes a curse

[@ekulerudamuru]

@@mau345 it's a good booster when starting but handle it poorly and it's game over

[@mi.Mik.]

@@Schroefdoppie corruption plagues the country

[@allanjameselarde9195]

Actually this is really an eye opener for most of the poor filipinos. I grew up on a relatively poor rural area. And I've seen rich families simply rule over the town. This has been normalized as I grew up in my town. Now that I'm in college, learning the decade failure of land reform here in the Philippines. I'm more convinced that this has to be resolved somehow. There has to be a way to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor here in the Philippines.

[@DGTelevsionNetwork]

Easy, lease to own. Convince the landlords that having agriculture as a corporate portfolio is not worth the headache and offer the tenant farmers a lease mortgage that is to be transferred within a set time frame and paid in full.

[@randomly_random_0]

the system is the problem. Change it and everything will be improved. The one we have now is powered by the poorly-written constitution.

[@toxic3495]

Wow so smart pick a poor uneducated person who formerly is landless to be your debtor rather than the government who is required by law and the Constitution to pay Just Compensation which is legally demandable from the government especially when you file a mandamus in court. Also it would be better to let the person with capital own the land rather than a poor man who will just be a LEECH on tax payer money just to buy the seeds he wants to plant. The main problem we should be asking who is running the farms better and more productive?

[@modest_spice6083]

@@toxic3495 The rich people here in the Philippines are a much more massive leech than any poor uneducated person can be since they barely pay any taxes and those who are in power already leeches taxpayer money through our massive ingrained government corruption. Better be that my tax will go to the betterment of the poor than to sustain the rich.

[@whodis1626]

easy. guillotines.

[@koyotekola6916]

Another amazing video of something I knew nothing about. I subscribe to mostly physics and history documentary related videos, but now I also subscribe to this channel as it covers the semiconductor industry and Asian history very well. I was in the Vietnam War and flew in and out of Clark AFB not knowing anything or caring about Philippines land reform problems. I know I'm oblivious to many things, but I'm trying to minimize it. Asianometry is stepping it up for me. I learn a lot from the comments, too. Thank you all.

[@davidng2699]

A very similar situation took place in Argentina in the mid 1800s with landed gentry having a stranglehold on the economy with everyone else eating crumbs. So despite being richer than the US at that time, Argentina began it's slow decline to become an emerging mkt today.

[@lucaszhang7887]

The Philippine elites also frequently collaborated with the Japanese (see Manuel Roxas), but the US helped cover up their involvement and keep them on the top after the war

[@josepalomar3269]

As a Filipino who resides in the Philippines, a very awesome and insightful video.

[@hchen2513]

You can omit the first part of your sentence

[@Agent-ie3uv]

This comment is inch away from infamous proud to be penoy comment

[@indaydaku]

Many people getting lands from their masters without capital to use to cultivate nor the education to stay viable ends up selling that land to finance their survival and their children's dreams of getting education. That's what happened to many of my grandmother's tenants. though my grandma's land was less than a 100 hectares, And half was made into a subdivision while the other half remained a farmland divided for her children, all the tenants that remained to be under her wing were gifted 2 home lots every family. Of all (16 families) the remaining tenants and their children, only 1 still around but their lands were sold by them to other people. I believe, if people does not work hard for anything they have, they easily discard or get rid of what they have or were given to them. They don't value anything that they did not worked hard to get or take. In the same way as inherited land. The children easily gives away, or sell any they have inherited. There is no strong emotional ties developed between them. That is what I have seen in my family. The second and third generations who inherited the properties they had, can easily and have easily given away, sold or donated the inherited land without much thought or sentimental value as to how much their parents have endured to acquire them.

[@rayF4rio]

Excellent video! As someone who has spent many years in the Philippines, I see it as poster child for unfulfilled potential. Its continuous failures and lack of improvements due in large part to the ingrained culture which is absent two essential attributes: 1) Any type of sense of urgency and 2) Any type of drive for excellence. These 2 things are abundantly absent when observing daily life and interacting with any service or infrastructure in the country. Comparing the Philippines to either Taiwan, Korea or Japan is like comparing bananas to beef. The cultures are completely different. The Philippines is simultaneously beautiful, sad, wonderful and depressing.

[@andrewandli]

Wow. Your research was obviously very thorough. I've been watching your videos on technology as well as those on history and politics, and have been quite impressed. When I saw this video floated on my recommendations list, I said to myself, well let's see how much he really knows about the Philippines. But you've blown me away. Kudos for the thoroughness.

[@justinnamuco9096]

Dear Filipinos, it is understandable for Asianometry to get some things wrong because talks about a wide range of topics. It is however appreciated that some awareness is promoted on real topics like a possible peculiar imbalance in land ownership in the Philippines. But then please don't take the content as more authoritative than that given by specialists.

[@constantinexi6489]

“possible peculiar imbalance” Is this a quirk of Filipino English or are you trying to imply something?

[@austurian55]

Had land reform succeeded in the Philippines just like in Japan after the second world war. The Philippines would have been a very different country today. My family was one of the benefactor from the Marcos era land reform in Central Luzon in 1970s. Before that they were tenant farmer to the Hacienda.

[@lumasoc]

Educating is the key. Not many know "How?" and "Why?" land reform is necessary. Great educational you tube.

[@ricoriofrer3706]

The social ELITES in the Philippines are going to remain unless extreme and drastic actions are taken to limit their power and influence, and bring forth economic development to the common people without learing over to communism. It only takes a few honorable, committed, and ruthless young leaders for these social elites to be eradicated by force of the WILL. Force, will, ruthlessness are a must if Philippines is the place on Earth you are to change successfully. Period!

[@seanwieland9763]

Look up the Italian School of Elite Theory. You can begin with James Burnham’s The Machiavellians. Or, the Iron Law of Oligarchy. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy

[@azuaraikrezeul1677]

Sorry to burst your bubble your young leaders are busy with gender studies and queer identity politics lol

[@ntabile]

Right now most poor farmers who benefited in the land reform program still lives in poverty for so many factors: 1. Farm to market 2. Middlemen, mostly downgrade the price of their produce. 3. Money lenders (legal and informal) that charged high interest rates. 4. Farm technology adaptation. You can add other factors that is not mentioned above and by Asianometry.

[@elphinstonevaldez3134]

5. Some ARBs sold their land holdings

[@jasonjames4254]

Yes! Land reform will fail unless the government first puts infrastructure in place to help poor farmers become successful.

[@zerorusher]

Incredible how learning the history of Philippines may help to understand better Brazilian history and its current situation.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

legacy of the iberian masters

[@omniyambot9876]

@@xXxSkyViperxXx loool is it the trend?

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

​@@omniyambot9876 probably, cuz these landlords in the philippines. the practice started with "hacienderos", who were first started by spaniards setting up farming estate hacienda plantations for the king of spain. when those spaniards died, they simply bequeathed their lands to the friar orders who let some mestizo families be their inquilino tenant families running the affairs of those hacienda estates. when the philippine revolution came, some of the abusive spanish and italian friars were murdered and eventually when the americans came to conquer, they gave the friar lands away to the people, that being the inquilino tenant families who had a lot of influence already and so officially started their legitimate being as the real landlords now. the national hero himself, his parents up to his great grandfather were also simply inquilino tenants running a farming estate under the friars who later kicked out his father when he was young.

[@choysakanto6792]

@@xXxSkyViperxXx the ultimate origin of it is due to the ancient landholding practices of the Roman Empire, of which the Iberian peninsula used to be an integral part of, where victorious legions and rich senators gain huge tracts of land at the expense of the defeated natives who were then condemned to slavery and mandatory labor to their conquerors. Those lands were called latifundia. While Rome went away with the fall of the city and its empire, the succeeding Iberian kingdoms continued the tradition of latifundia, and later on transplanted it to their colonies across the world including the Philippines which later morphed into the infamous hacienda. What preserved it was the synod of the Catholic Church, especially the Spanish Inquisition, which demanded unquestioning obeisance to _those whom God placed in power_ and that seriously Stockholm syndromed the natives into believing and following it as it is. Now we are seeing the results and the whole world is laughing.

[@nunyabiznes33]

Main difference methinks was that the Philippines already had a landed elite prior to the Spanish arrival which don't seem to be the case in some parts of LatAm. The Spanish simply inserted themselves into the system.

[@burtpowell1344]

Congratulations on taking on such a hard issue. It’s not that I think you were right, I don’t know enough to say for sure,but at least you tried to be fair and analytic. I am looking toward to your next video on economic development. Again, thanks.

[@Ealsante]

An excellent video! Have you considered looking into the brain drain, which seems to me to be another indirect effect of this general inequality? I always felt it to be such a tragedy: so many smart, hardworking Pinoys that are able to make it overseas despite all the odds, but they're there because they know they could never make it back home, where the odds are even steeper.

[@n0madfernan257]

this is sadly true

[@nvelsen1975]

Plus that system leads to exploitation. Philipino sailors are popular throughout global shipping seeing as you can pay them a fart and three marbles instead of a proper wage. In Gulf States like Dubai and Qatar, Philipino slaves are very popular because they will put up with a lot more than other slaves will. I mean, you enslave a Chinese woman as your nanny to work 7 days a week no breaks no passport, there's going to be trouble. Enslaving a German engineer? Instant trouble even with your own government. A Philipino slave-nanny or slave-truck driver by contrast? Their government isn't going to care at all and they will accept (well, be forced to accept) what you do to them because 'still better than back home'.

[@jparsit]

good point, sadly most people are for themself when they made it but become white-washed.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

@@nvelsen1975 maids and family drivers working 7 days a week, living with the family with only maybe one day-off break per month in the philippines among upper middle class and upper class filipino families is a norm that ive grew up with

[@randomly_random_0]

@@nvelsen1975 yes, most Filipino workers are underpaid. The countries that want them in bait these Filipinos by compliments like "hardworking people", "very loyal", "intelligent", "resilient" lol. But, who cares if underpaid? after all, their money will be sent back to Philippines and will be converted to Peso, which is a large amount. This is why many were forced to exploited jobs outside the Philippines due to lack of Foreign investments in the country. The local elites (the same people this video is talking about) blocks any Reforms in the system that will allow Foreign Investments to come in and create jobs. This will force a competition and the local elites doesn't want competition. They want to monopolize every industries (hence we have Jollibee Foods Corp., Globe Telecom, PLDT, Smart, SM, Ayala, Lopez, Cojuanco etc)

[@inesfi66166]

Indonesia also have the same problems, from land snatching company (supported by local corupts officials) to land grabbing by richer family (bribing land record officials).

[@神崎狂三]

The Philippines's history can be summarized as "How to NOT be like Japan and South Korea"

[@desgner_droz8716]

Those 2 countries or any Asian countries are not good models for the Philippines, it was westernized way before most Asian country and most of its precolonial foundations such as a unified culture for political stability and in turn economic prosperity was almost entirely erased by the Spaniards and cemented underground by the Americans. It pretty much had to scrap colonial leftovers for culture building obfuscating most of the feudal structures that remained instead of superceding it like the case with many free nations historically. The thing with colonialism is that basically every post-colonial cultures are stuck in a cycle of semi-feudalism, neither fully regressive but cannot fully embrace progressivism either. Philippine history and its future is in parallel with South American nations like Peru, Colombia etc, it's closer to that region than say it is to Thailand or Indonesia mostly because the country was pretty much culturally decimated(Malaysia and Indonesia still retained their language and pre-European religion with minimal influence from the Portugese and Dutch for example). It's already quite distant from its immidiate neighbors like Indonesia and Thailand, it's way more distant from Korea and Japan, its only equivalence with the latter is the legacy of American military dominance, if we were to use that as criteria Liberia and Nicaragua are also appropriate comparisons.

[@theburden9920]

Japan and south korea model is not sustainable

[@desgner_droz8716]

@@theburden9920 sustainability is context dependent, modern Japan and Korea will remain prosperous for as long as America remains the dominant power. On the other hand Philippines remains poor under American hegemony leaving space for the existence post-American sentiments and forecasts, it is the same case with many South American and African cultures that makes up a significant portion of the 3rd world, you can clearly observe the violent and soft power interventions of the United States in South/Central America particularly Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, Colombia and Nicaragua, countries in their backyards. Countries that remains poor under American dominance are an inherent threat to the empire, contrary to popular belief poor countries aren't poor because they failed to be rich, they're poor because the dominant power of their timelines view them as a threat to their hegemony.

[@desgner_droz8716]

@@theburden9920 furthermore the Philippines is not foreign to violent American intervention, many suffarage movements are violently silenced by an American friendly regime in the country especially those related to land reforms, infamously the Mendiola massacre under Cory Aquino and many more that you will never read in the newspapers, many are also demonized as being "communists" when the more proper term for these movements are "post-colonialists", something that a double digit iq president like dutae fell for with his red tagging stupidity, these labels are clearly psyops by the CIA to keep this country American-friendly. With all that said, it becomes clearer how arbitrary "prosperity" and sustainability is defined under imperialism.

[@theburden9920]

@@desgner_droz8716 but America will no longer be the dominant power. Just look at Japan once an economic power in the 80’s but now it is barely competitive. It just shows how you dont depend on a single country for your economic and military needs. That is what Philippines used to do

[@pdsnpsnldlqnop3330]

Thanks again! One observation - we learn so much from you and get your touches of humour, but we learn little about yourself. I imagine that your phone has a 'selfie' camera but you never use it - you show what is out there and not yourself, which, to me is an extremely healthy way of seeing the world. This contrasts somewhat with how it is with a lot of people these days, where it is always about them. Keep up the good work!

[@vincentsalvadorlatosa5077]

I have read about this in a book titled An Anarchy of Families, State and Family in the Philippines by Alfred W. McCoy. What is happening now is that landlords are coverting their land into central business districts(CBD) or sometimes industrial economic zones(IEZ), they are using Philippine Economic Zone Authority(PEZA) and other goverment agencies to grant them permits and funds. For example Hacienda Luisita is now being converted as part of Clark Green City a CBD.

[@laminarflowone]

As usual, very informative. I can't speak for Taiwan, but most Koreans who collaborated with Japanese colonialism ended up becoming well educated and in power. In order to get an education, you needed to be in cahoots with the Japanese, so I don't believe you are right on this. I'm not sure how they ended up eventually passing land reform in Korea though.

[@choysakanto6792]

It was only possible because China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam are all Confucian states. State Confucianism is where the entire country was treated as a single family with the state as the head of the family, and to harmonize the family the state had to make economic opportunities equal to all, and in rural terms that meant dividing the lands into smaller patches of family farms all subjected to the state as a single family owning a huge land as a manor could rise into power on its own therefore undermining the state and its monopoly of power and thus national harmony. This was first done in China, where Confucius came from, in order to keep the whole empire in line and subjected to the state as personified by the emperor to preserve the peace and happiness of its constituents. Confucianism also taught that every person must undergo education since childhood (this was the ultimate origin of Asia's tiger parents) and work hard while serving the state, to enrich the state and thus create and preserve social harmony. Therefore, it is no coincidence that East Asia was the richest region in the world.

[@silverianjannvs5315]

100 years under Japanese occupation?

[@catzor4795]

​@@choysakanto6792Spoken like a true slave of the Chinese. Typical bisakol.

[@arielaye3648]

always wondered about how the shenanigans kept on for fellow my countrymen, it is plain, simple and visible, just corruption. grateful for having you shed light on this, on point explanations.

[@banwa_non]

all countries have corruption, but the Philippines just has a bad system and a bad religion. Japan, South Korea, China and Singapore are not Christian nations, and they also employ Socialist practices in their economy, I don't see the Philippines doing the same. The only Socialist elected in Philippine presidency was Duterte.

[@Pmiller287]

I think I like your history videos the most of all.

[@aniksamiurrahman6365]

Now I'm sure. Our favorite KZbinr Jon is a secret revolutionary. His revolution is to educate everyone about the relationship between resource technology and the power structure.

[@Keyshhh]

thank you for this! i would love to see more Filipino economics, politics, and business from this channel as i am learning a lot 😁

[@ralphrestubog5519]

Marcos had an ulterior motive that ultimately benefitted him and his cronies.

[@cjnem7243]

What cronnies? Marcos start the land reform for farmers who dont own a land of their own

[@ralphrestubog5519]

@@cjnem7243 it only covered rice and corn. What happened to, for example, sugarcane fields that are known to be owned by Cojuanco et al? Did you even pay attention to the whole thing? Gosh, marcos apologists are really hopeless. You don't belong here.

[@wilfredlaurencelabuson573]

As they say, you don't compare the Philippine's socio-cultural and political history with its southeast asian peers, rather see it as one of the Latin America's Spanish colonies. And there, you will see staggering similarities.

[@shanghaidiscovery2664]

Some of the richest landlords were the ones whose land holdings were in Manila and were able to develop that into real estate

[@yo2trader539]

Taiwan and South Korea benefited from Japan's meticulous land registration as well as the KOSEKI system. In some countries, they can't tax land efficiently and effectively because they're not fully aware of land ownership and transactions. Some countries aren't even aware of its accurate population size. Ironically, if Japan administered the Philippines for one or two generations, it would have been as prosperous as Taiwan and South Korea.

[@johndoh5182]

This might sound strange, but land reform isn't the answer in the PH. I know, I own a small parcel of land there that we bought from a family that probably benefited from the Spaniards and their family has been subdividing and selling off land for probably a good 50 - 100 years now and it's a source of revenue for them. It basically means they do nothing, sell parcels from time to time, and do nothing. The woman we bought the land from has adult children who don't want to deal with the land, and basically do nothing. They travel and spend money. But what happens when poorer people get a hold of land? They grow food of course. It sounds like that's the right thing to do, but the Philippine is FOOD RICH. Food is cheap there, still, except for what comes in from other countries. Small farmers compete with each other and it doesn't make them any better off than they were, Usually the houses they can build are cheap, and a typhoon or two that's a direct hit on these places wipes them out. They consequently aren't consumers except for critical things. We're building a home there that will be elevated out of possible flood levels. Like anyone with money does if they're smart, the home is being built with cinder block and rebar. You fill in the walls with cement to make them solid. You design roofing that's anchored into the walls so a typhoon can't rip the roof off, etc..... Poorer people can't do this. Land reform is a VERY divisive topic in the PH as you can imagine. The ones that have, don't want to give anything up, and the ones that don't have but can somehow come into a parcel end up finding it's only a source of food for them, along with a little money they can make selling directly to the consumer in open air markets, and this floods the PH with food. You also have the situation where the most important food, rice, costs more, not less. Rice is inexpensive when it can be dealt with mechanically and there's a small number of large plots owned by a single person for each large lot or there's a co-op and they've come good at competing large scale. But that's not the case. There are probably thousands if not tens of thousands of people who own small plots of rice pads. Because this is often their main sorce of income and they can't be as efficient, costs go up. For instance almost all these people don't have any equipment, so they have to pay out money each time machinery is needed, so the owners of the machinery make a lot of money. The bigger thing that would help the PH is they decide to partner with another country for business development and they focus on improving education and start to enter the modern world as a country, and not just 1 - 3% of their population. Land reform? Maybe take away large tracts of land from the landowner familes that due to no REAL work of their own have these large tracts because they were the benefactors of either the Spanish coming in or the Americans coming in. But most that land needs to stay natural, not developed. It's rain forest. Chopping it down and building tiny box homes for people on the cheap usually only benefits the developers of the property, not the people who buy in to one of these small box homes. They're built cheap so people can afford them, or you know, 2 - 3% of the population can afford them, and because they're cheap, they break. Once again, typhoons. I find this video off the mark because you've looked at some law but since you really don't understand the PH or think about funding you missed the big picture. One of the points was land distribution through buying land from the big owners and selling it off, but where is the tax money coming from? This is part of the failure. But once again redistribution to create another 1 million farmers competing with each other isn't a good solution, not even if it's rice fields. Growing grains requires mechanization as anyone who knows ag. will tell you. And for growing anything else, that's where once again the PH is food rich and costs are low and it doesn't bring in enough money. Best to allow part of that land to go back to rain forest, because if it's not producing a major, factory farming cash crop for export, it's basically a means to feed a single family. But for exporting, a large mechanized farm is much better if it's going to compete with other countries' crops.

[@toadfrowns]

For anyone who wants to read more about land reform in the Philippines, I believe the struggle can't be separated from the violent atrocities of its monied landlords. One example is the Hacienda Luisita Massacre, which happened during the Cory Aquino Presidency. Murders and harrasment of farmers who fought for their rights to the land are unfortunately commonplace and continue to happen until today. EDIT: Mixed up events, I was thinking of the Mendiola Massacre in 1987, That's what happened during Cory's term. The Hacienda Luisita massacre (2004) happened during Arroyo's presidential term, w/ the land owned by the Cojuancos (Cory Aquino is a Cojuanco). but my sentiments still stand--monied landlords have committed horrible atrocities to farmers fighting for land reform.

[@helljumper6969]

Hacienda Luisita Massacre happened during Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term back in 2004.

[@toadfrowns]

@@helljumper6969 Hi! My apologies, I mixed up events in my original comment. Edited my comment already to get facts straight

[@Bluehairedgirl89]

Thank you for this episode! Sadly all of this reminds me forcefully of a line from Robert D. Kaplans book Asia’s Cauldron. “The Philippines is not a asian nation like China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, or even Indonesia. It’s a Latin American banana republic that just happens to be located in the Far East.” Sorry for butchering the quote.

[@herrkommandank675]

It's neither Latin, as majority of its customs derived from Malay, Chinese, or even Arabian origins. Politically wise, it isn't even related to Latin as the political and economic climate does not lean strongly to leftism and protectionism is now gradually being a symbol of the past as new administrations are implementing free market reforms, compared to Latin America. A comparison to Latin America is flawed. The asian aspect is far more apparent than "Hispanic."

[@herrkommandank675]

All these political and economic reforms are being driven out from regional economic competition in Southeast Asia, something Latin America does not have.

[@神崎狂三]

@@herrkommandank675 Its also dubious how the political economy of the Philippines is unique in Asia and somehow belongs in Latin America. Southeast/East Asia also has a history of similar Communist insurgencies. Vietnam has Viet Cong, Cambodia has Khmer Regime, Laos too, and the Malayan Insurgency, as well as CCP and Workers' Party of Korea. The difference is that they are successful compared to the Huk or CPP-NPA. Philippines is also not unique in having authoritarian strongmen leaders like Ferdinand Marcos. Indonesia has Sukarno. Singapore has Lee Kwan Yew. Taiwan has Chiang Kai-Shek. South Korea has Park Chung-Hee. The difference ofc is that Ferdinand Marcos is less successful than all of the above examples. Philippines was also in a similar trajectory to South Korea and Japan from the 1950s. Both of them has American military bases, American cultural influence and occupation, and use of English as prestige language. Japan and South Korea's different political institutions and economy however ensured that it managed to have a more successful trajectory than the Philippines did while starting with superficial starting conditions.

[@DoomStarRequiem]

Filipino here.. we are Asian but with mostly Spanish influences... We have a lot of bananas here but we're not a banana republic. We just have rampant corruption and some insurgents but we are not a banana republic.

[@herrkommandank675]

​@@神崎狂三 Japan and South Korea, before WW2 and being occupied by the US, already had a strong and stable political system, where it has the Ministerial and Parliamentary System, and a polar opposite was the Koreas, which was under a monarchial (Joseon Rule) but both countries are politically SOVEREIGN and stable. The PH had to still contend with Spanish rule, while we may had a brief moment of PH sovereignity after the Philippine Revolution, it was not long enough to mature the political system between 1898 to 1903. It was later then influenced by US lawmakers, under American Imperialism, thus the political system and laws of the 20th Century is heavily foreign influenced. Regardless, we have been seeing a political shift within the 21st Century. As more politicians are seemingly heading to center to even far-right and are becoming neoconservative, where there is greater advocacy and movement for free-market reforms and political reforms that aims to relinquish the 1987 Constitution. It was a rough start, but where now certainly economically growing and politically changing.

[@elzaso8296]

Landlords in the Philippines are the Oligarchs with thier 1 common motto to ordinary people: "Make them poor"

[@pad9x]

that period from when the Philippines transfered as a colony from Spain to US would make such a good backdrop for a movie

[@Ultraelectromagnetic]

During that period the Philippine Revolution, First Philippine Republic, and Filipino-American War all happened in rapid succession. There are several Filipino films (and I think only one US film), but most are hard to find. "Balangiga: Howling Wilderness" and "Goyo: The Boy General" are on Netflix (though idk about region limitations). "Amigo" is the name of the US production and it's up on KZbin. All three films are pretty good imo.

[@Ai-vq8rj]

The last of The Phillippines is a spanish movie about the last spanish soldiers....it is also known as the seige of Baler

[@mikeramirez2356]

and also the Pinoy version that came before that, "Baler". and also "Heneral Luna", of course, who can forget that.

[@ablanuza76]

I don't see the Philippines achieving real land reform in the next decades. People keep electing the oligarchy into the government. Who are mostly just interested in keeping or expanding their own power. These oligarchs also tend to abuse the culture of "utang na loob" (debt of gratitude) among most Filipinos, commonly the poor and uneducated, to keep them in power by giving them the bare minimum and making it appear they did the masses a huge favor thus gaining misplaced loyalty from them. It's a vicious cycle, and many Filipinos don't seem to realize that they themselves perpetuate it.

[@Kraken9911]

It blows my mind that for many Filipino families, the only way to achieve middle class is to leave the country and send money home. Everyone from newly graduated engineers to lowly cashier's earn pitiful salaries. Corporations earn 1st world revenue and pay 3rd world salaries. It's a capitalist dream. Why the people don't seek to change that is beyond me.

[@choysakanto6792]

@@Kraken9911 their beliefs warrant it for them to continue preserving the rotten system, all thanks be to the Spanish colonizers including the Catholic orders for making it all possible.

[@PrinciplesOrDie]

Great Analysis Asianometry, as a regular Filipino, I struggled to understand this decades old land issue of ours. With your video short yet sweet, I know now who to blame :D

[@kobyboy9401]

Love these videos

[@butterlord6868]

My town used to be owned by five families until they gave most of their lands away. My family also used to be owners of a large chunk of another town but we sold most of them.

[@philipvlnst]

Effects of land reform to the agriculture sector of the Philippines. 1) Because of land reform, no banks (except for one bank, Land Bank of the Philippines) will give agricultural loans. Rural Banks and private lending institutions can give agricultural loans at 24% interest rate per annum compared to 6% per annum in a standard agriculture loan (when primary banks would give out loans); 2) The Central bank of the Philippines mandated Banks to give agriculture loans lest they be fined. Banks would rather be fined than give out loans to the agriculture sector; 3)Land Reform is NOT distributing land for free. Beneficiaries will still have to buy the land. Where will the beneficiaries get their money to plant crops when they don't have money in the first place and banks won't lend them. 3) The selection of beneficiaries became so random that even a practicing dentist became a beneficiary! 4) Many of the beneficiaries could not even pay taxes on the land that they owned and it is prohibited by law that they lease out the land. If it is found out that they are not tilling the land, they could lose their status of beneficiary. However, this is difficult to implement and so a lot of beneficiaries have "gentlemen's agreement" with former landowners that that the landowners lease the land from the beneficiaries. 5) There is a dictum in landownership: You can't really say you own the land unless you are given a Title to the land. What happened beneficiaries are not given a "real" title but are given a "certificate of land ownership" (CLOA) which is a quasi title but not really; like a half-baked title no one can really figure out. A "CLOA" cannot be sold nor used for collateral (however there are ways around this) and the latest Supreme Court ruling is that a CLOA has the force of a regular Title. So the next logical question is, "Why have a CLOA in the first place?" As a result of Land Reform, food production has gone down, we are now importing rice, vegetables, and even sugar (which we once exported). Such a shame!

[@CDeuce152]

This partially explains my brother and myself being denied our respective inheritances after our grandfather (mom's side) died.

[@realtalk6195]

Elaborate. If he owned it why wouldn't it go to you. Sounds like it may be family infighting where a cousin or uncle/aunt stole the inheritance for themselves, which happens around the world.

[@CDeuce152]

@@realtalk6195 Part of the fact is that my brother and I live in the States. I never found out about the inheritances until 3 years after he died. My grandmother was aware of the denial of property "assured" an inheritance to my dad but that never came to be as he died unexpectedly 6 months after my grandma. The level of greed is more than enough fuel to abandon any future visits for the foreseeable future.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

Normally, your right to inheritence gets transmitted to you if your parents died before the testator's own death as they are to the testator their children...

[@nvelsen1975]

That sounds a bit weird to me. Who ended up taking that inheritance then? Because any legal system I'm aware of, it's really hard or impossible to cut out the children, and if the children die before collecting their share is automatically transfered to any grandchildren. Grandmother being the spouse can sometimes stop an inheritance as long as she lives, but after her death the normal rules should still apply. The state or random other people typically don't enter the picture if a family goes extinct with no surviving 1st or 2nd line relatives at all.

[@johndoh5182]

@@CDeuce152 I disagree with your assertion. There is law in the PH that dictates inheritance and in fact can be problematic by the way it does division. And nothing in this video dealt with that topic. We own a parcel of land in the PH, that is my Filipino wife owns it. I can only own the house that goes on top of that property which guarantees that if she dies, her family can't kick me off the property. And writing a will, like you can do in the West? That can be MORE problematic than NOT having a will. With different Filipino law wills can be ignored especially when it comes to people who are living outside the country or aren't Filipino citizens. But I don't know your situation and for the most part I really dislike the system of governance there because it's run by large landowners or very wealthy business men and there are governing families there and there aren't really term limits since you can move from one govt. position, then into another one, then back into the first one. For the most part the large landowners contribute very little to society there. They have large wealth which usually avoids taxation and they don't invest into their communities because they're better off when people around them are poor and then the family can use people for cheap labor, and that's COMMON in the PH. So if you come from a family like that, I don't feel for you. Make your way in the US, but the US is becoming like the PH in that 10% of the wealthiest families own a large portion of all assets, brought to you by the huge reduction in capital gains tax, and more and more families are ending up slave to a landholder/investor class. At least I can use my retirement and live a comfortable life in the PH for my last years since we have everything paid off and my pension/SS is WAY more than enough to cover our costs, leaving us money to travel in retirement. I think if you actually dug into the law and got a lawyer you'd find that if you had a valid claim to property, you'd get it unless your locality is completely corrupt, and that happens there, probably more so in the South.

[@DensDaPens]

Most comprehensive video I've seen about my country's land reform fiasco. Thank you for this!!!

[@debasish.d5616]

Philippines is gradually able to increase its share of the pie in the services sector, many service sector oriented jobs(BPO) have shifted their offices from India to Philippines. I wish Philippines all the best & love from India. Slowly but steadily We will rise together.

[@nunyabiznes33]

There are plenty of BPOs in the Philippines but seem to me that India still have a fair share of the tech stuff. I had a short stint in a BPO, the account we were given is basically customer service, that company's tech support is based in India so that's were we redirect when needed.

[@debasish.d5616]

@@nunyabiznes33 Gradually the Tech support will also move to Philippines. As in mfg sector, they start with assembling and then they move up the value chain.

[@theoheinrich529]

Hoping for a better future for the two countries, history knows they deserve it.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

many in the philippines always say that indians are the best in IT and even on youtube, they teach us free IT tutorial, but in terms of customer service to speak clearer english or more convincing accent of english, this is where filipinos excel.

[@debasish.d5616]

@@xXxSkyViperxXx I think Philippines, can come with a mechanism similar to India's IT Policies, implement them in Philippines & reap the benefits. Eventually you'll have to move up the value chain in terms of service industry. Best wishes to Philippines

[@craigscharlin1904]

Generally I find this a fair analysis. But it also leaves out many aspects of the issue. A few thoughts: 1) The situation in the 20’s and 30’s that led to the development of the HUK revolutionary movement is far more complex than mentioned in the video. For example, although the leadership of the HUK were demanding land for the landless, the peasant class did not necessarily want land ownership and all the hassles that came with that, what they wanted was to be treated fairly by their landlord bosses and the government. 2) after WWII and especially in the 19r60’s the role of the World Bank, IMF, in directing international financial policies creating growing new industrial states/economies in countries like Taiwan, Japan and S. Korea was at the same time making countries like the Philippines that may have been on the verge of becoming industrialized more independent economies into primarily agricultural and even “handy craft” based economies dependent on foreign loans, played a huge role in directing the Philippines economy and distorting the shortcomings of the land reform policies. 3) The video doesn’t even touch on the detrimental role of the labor unions, Communist Party, leftest leaders in the Philippines. The powerful landlord class is always justifiably blamed for it’s shortcomings, never mentioned are the shortcomings of the leftest sector which were in historical context equally detrimental to the prosperity of the working class. As always the devil is in the details, so many details not discussed in this video. But then, it’s a short analysis, fairly good, but much more needs to be discussed.

[@youcantalwaysgetwhatyouwan6687]

There are 3 Major Landowners in the Philippines Politicians, Chinese Filipinos and Spanish Filipinos

[@rafanadir6958]

Do the Spanish filipinos speak Spanish ?

[@youcantalwaysgetwhatyouwan6687]

@@rafanadir6958 Yes but the older generations only. Many new generation Spanish Filipinos speaks English rather than Spanish

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

the polticians, a.k.a. the mestizo filipinos, a.k.a. the older chinese & spanish filipinos... who tell people they are just filipino.

[@punditgi]

Awesome channel! Another great video as always! 😍

[@dremm24]

Thanks for the research. Yes I'd love to watch things like these about my country.

[@MarkL-rh4mz]

"In the Philippines, land ownership is vested in the King. This means that the King has legal title to all land within the country's borders. As such, individuals and entities may hold land only through grants or permissions from the monarchy. This system of land ownership has historical roots and plays a significant role in shaping property rights and land tenure in the Philippines."

[@Willys-Wagon]

I am some what unsure of the link you are drawing between land redistribution and industrialisation. In European historiography the immediate precursor to industrialisation were agriculture technical advancements leading to surplus produce, labour and population growth. Can you expand on your theory and perhaps elaborate on land redistribution's role in Taiwan's success.

[@Bigjoe99]

In developed countries land is owned by even smaller group of people. Corporates and large farmers own 2/3 of the land. Modern agriculture is an industrial enterprise, hence it can only be efficient if owned small group in large scale..

[@genghiskhan5701]

That is because 90 percent of people are no longer farmers in developed nations This is different in developing and rural nations where majority are farmers or rural peasants

[@theburden9920]

@@genghiskhan5701 majority of the people in the philippines are no longer farmers too

[@42_comes_after_the_joke]

One correction, Cojuanco family owns the Hacienda Luisita, not the Aquino family.

[@cjnem7243]

They are cousins

[@feltongailey8987]

On the other hand, look at their air quality compared to eastern countries with all of its "heavy industry". Pollution is rampant and people are essentially "forced" to live in substandard factory "cities" where they essentially work, sleep, eat, repeat day after day after day until they eventually succumb to the effects of this type of existence and are shoveled out the door to make way for the next poor soul.

[@choysakanto6792]

And yet they had higher HDI and purchasing power than the Philippines.

[@kevinbarry71]

As an American who resides in the Philippines; well done.

[@PropaneWP]

Another good upload. Thank you.

[@mamaritz1128]

What a very interesting topic. Sadly, a lot of lands in the Philippines are still owned by people who died decades ago. The legal heirs quarrel and argue to the point of killing each other.

[@bobbysierraVlogs]

How can the Philippine government fix the problem with land reform when the landlords and multi businesses in the whole country owns the government and the law.😂😂😂

[@AldrinAlbano]

Wow!! Thank you so much for such an informative dissection of the Philippines historical "efforts" at Land Reforms. I was born there and I grew up in California. I will be going back to retire one day and I need this information.

[@ntabile]

You are lucky. You can apply for dual citizenship and avail of priviledges like SSS pension, Philhealth etc. Which is now a bone of contention for Filipinos who didn't go out ofthe country to work or migrate!

[@bozimmerman]

Land reform since 1940 sounds like a bit of a trap. Modern agriculture flourishes due to intensive capital investment: tractors, fertilizers, insecticides, etc. The more land you have, the more viable such an investment would be. A single family on a small plot would have a hard time justifying such a investment. Land reform, therefore, could lead to the terrible situation where there is less inequality, and also, MUCH less to eat or investment wealth overall. I'm a super-fan of land reform, and often look to Lorenzo de Zavala's reforms in the state of Mexico in the 19th century as a good model, even if they were undone later. But man -- to do it today is tough. Perhaps giving people an economic stake, in the form of shares of a corporation, might be a better answer?

[@VeilingSun]

Yes, I think so too about land reform creating inefficient small-time farm owners. But ultimately I think this sort of mass land redistribution to many smaller parties is just a sneaky way of transferring wealth to those who are ultimately destitute. Even in places that started out with many small land owners doing their own farming, with the right policies and incentives it can lead to larger players slowly absorbing all the small land owners and creating large efficient commercial farms that receive capital investment. A bit of governing through "unintended" secondary effects.

[@wanitooo]

You're right on the money here, it is a legitimate problem and is recognized by some people in the PH gov't. One way this can be solved is by having the farmers work in cooperatives, this way they can share the burden of the upfront cost of investment, whether that be in tractors or other facilities. And it works. This one is being done in some places in the Philippines but not nationally. So that's one more lingering problem. Part of the problem is after having a decades long battle to reduce land holdings, people can now only hold a set amount of land. But because of this, farmers cant benefit from economies of scale because they cant acquire more land, and hence cant industrialize their operations. They are limited by the land reforms, which is a bitter irony. So here's what the government did instead: Rice tariffication law (fairly recent, like 5 years old or something) - it basically removed the rice import controls in the country and just slapped a tariff on those imports. This results in lower prices for rice and an added revenue for the government, which is by the aforementioned law is to be spent on agricultural industrialization (buying new farming equipment, seeds, r&d, and supporting farmers). But since the price of rice is now cheaper, farmers now have less income and are being forced out of the "business" since they can't compete with the market now flooded with imported rice. So ironically the program that was supposed to help farmers, made them more poor. This however, was on purpose. By the nature of industrial farming you necessarily need to have less people working on the farms. In effect, with this law, they cull the inefficient use of agricultural lands, as only those farms that can compete with the global market will survive. Giving way to what they call "high-value" crops. But they didn't admit this when making this law. Probably because they couldn't, how could you sell a law that says "we will render some farmers without income, but that is a sacrifice we will make". Maybe they hoped the farmers would necessarily stop farming rice and move on to farming "high-value" crops but these are a people who farmed rice all their lives, so that's not really easy. Nevertheless the government seems to be keeping to it's promise, they are providing for new, modern farming equipment and there are also loans available. The gov't is reporting higher yields and calling the law a success. But I would say that it's too early, the devil is in the execution, this program could definitely work, but they need to address the pains that will come with farmers having less income than before and retraining them to farm other crops. There are also people in the government pushing for nationwide enforcement of cooperatives. So this saga unfortunately isn't gonna be finished anytime soon.

[@francisdayon]

This is also my big beef with home ownership in the Philippines as they have basically made it impossible to sell pre-owned homes through the current loan system. Giving homeowners very little incentives to update and maintain homes as they can't really sell them. This ties up to the oilgarchs who just wants to funnel condo and subdivision home sales to new home buyers. This makes it so that only the developers makes money out of real estate and the buyers are stuck to their monthly payments praying they don't loose their job in the next 15-30years to never skip the monthly payments. The icing on the cake is that these subdivision homes and condos are way overpriced and are so poorly built that you will very rarely see these homes used as per design or turn-overed unit. In most cases, subdivision homes are rebuilt anyways. It's just that those homes are the only ones you can loan.

[@drsm7947]

As i thought living in philipines is a darksouls mode you need to compete with enternal lords

[@herrkommandank675]

People always self depricate without realizing how we have grown. Birth rates have declined, povrrty has declined, growth is at average 6%, FDI have peaked to 10 USD Billion and is still growing. No wonder the opposition lost, they only see the "negatives" (which majority isn't even apparent and significant) instead of promoting significant policies for national development.

[@theoheinrich529]

@@herrkommandank675 Trust me, there's much to be done. History will see if the current choice would be the "correct" course of action.

[@xXxSkyViperxXx]

@@herrkommandank675 it's because ph got a lot of ...nega ...right, my nigga?

[@herrkommandank675]

@@theoheinrich529 Do a comparative analysis of economies that eventually embraced free-market reforms, social welfare, and educational reforms (where all three are happening or have happened in PH) and look at their economies. We don't need to "wait" for history to show us whether we've made the right call, just correlate it.

[@choysakanto6792]

@@herrkommandank675 grown? Hahahahahahaha. Laugh me a chuckle. That growth was nothing at best, and self serving for the oligarchs and feudal elites at worst. The number of people below the poverty line continues to increase by the day and so far the gap between the rich and the poor continues to ever widen. FDI peaked to 10 billion US$? Is that all you could ever show to us? Guess what? Vietnam got 18 billion just last month! Philippines is nothing but a harlot being given the Saki Yoshida treatment by the world's primate nations.

[@ginogarcia8730]

Can't wait for the monopoly part... thanks for these videos. Teaches me so much and fills my heart with sadness that we are so able to become a great developing country but stuff like this holds us back.

[@stephendelacruzone]

As a Filipino... you're analysis is always bang on the money.✨👌 What can you do against these land owning elites... pretty much nothing.😔

[@vladimirgorea8714]

Communist revolution

[@ntabile]

That is why NPA/CPP cannot be totally be eradicated because of this struggle.

[@johnpatricklim4509]

I mean being also in politics as dynasties and their own private armies....

[@omniyambot9876]

@@ntabile now I appreciate them.

[@winzyl9546]

Nothing because the people will continue to vote trapos. We are now a free nation with no colonial leaders and free to choose our leaders, yet too stupid to choose. Rizal was right we are not ready to rule ourselves.

[@mannyespinola9228]

Thank you for this spot-on video

[@boio_]

Every Latin American country dealing with the Spaniard aristocratic inheritance and US-style privatization favouring the plutocrats be like

[@bozimmerman]

I'm confused. If the landed elites were passing the land "down through the generations", doesn't that mean the land was ultimately owned by a family? In the beginning, it was said that family ownership was the old "communal" way. Putting aside that this is a very unusual definition of "communal", how are these systems different? Also did the pre-spanish families who owned the land have a patriarchal structure?

[@JoshTalks11]

Good observation. Hopefully he’ll come to reply to this.

[@mosesracal6758]

Familial ties are very important in Filipino culture, something we embraced from the Chinese so I suspect that explains why even if the system of land ownership shifted to individuals, it still meant familial ownership. The Principalia mostly consisted of the old noble elite before the country got colonized so I guess the land never really moved that much except when the friars and the Peninsulares (those from Spain) moved in the country. Really the only people who remained relatively untouched during the Spanish Colonization were the tribal people who live up in the mountains and the Moros in the south who were able to keep their autonomy from the colonial government; but when American companies came - they also faced the same problems of land grabbing as in the rest of the country. The Pre-Spanish nobility consisted mostly of socio-political systems following either the Hindu or Muslim faith so pre-Spanish followed a patriarchal structure.

[@vmoses1979]

Owned by a few families as opposed to wider family groups. The whole point is that a productive asset was expropriated to a few well connected families and the primary means to sustain onesekf was deprived from many thus forcing them to work for the elite landowners or become laborers in the cities.

[@RatedR03]

@@mosesracal6758As part of the Cordilleras, I wont say the Americans impacted argiculture as it was deemed unprofitable. They did invest significantly in mining, as my grandfather's employers were Americans. They were payed fairly from what he mentions and he and many of friends live well off. While family does matter most, my grandparents learned skilled needed to be rich from their friends and neighbors.

[@orlandodizon4755]

Lands used to be community property of tribes. Chieftains had power over these tribes but usage and production of lands were communal. Spain under its colonization period appointed some of the chieftains into political leadership. These chieftains were able to convert tribe land into family property. Tribe member had no concept of private land ownership before the Spanish invasion. You can use tribe land to cultivate crops then. Catholic church also took ownership of large tracts of land during that period. Political landowner elites were able to survive American and Japanese occupation intact. Many of them collaborated with foreign invaders. They had control of land resources. Land reform was finally done a few years ago but many of the distributed lands were not as productive. Small farmers do not have the know-how, capital and government support to maximize production. Lots in Hacienda Luisita were as small as 6,000 square meters. Not big enough for sugar cane farming.. It makes sense to convert the area into an economic zone that will generate higher revenues. Many farmer-beneficiaries eventually sold their lands to private developers. They'd rather have quick money than continue subsistence farming.

[@iono1019]

My great grandfather bought 60 hectares of land in Samar in the 1930s. I’m confused… why shouldn’t my family retain ownership? Also redistributing land doesn’t guarantee increased production.

[@acolyte1951]

Philippines is interesting to learn about

[@TamZ4073]

Thank you for this explanation! Looking forward to similar videos

[@MaxxPa1]

Hello you have been selected among my lucky winners DM via the above name on telegram to claim your prize 🌲 🎁..

[@Errr717]

Excellent analysis as usual.

[@VanBurenOfficial]

Dude your videos are so good, consistently interesting, love the history stuff!

[@Medik_0001]

Love your channel please keep up the great work

[@Basta11]

The answer to this is actually pretty simple, implementation however will not be easy. Property rights - particularly land rights are granted by the government. The government provides the service that allows exclusive use through the legal system. The government also provides infrastructure and service coverage like roads, electricity, broadband, police, fire, schools, administration etc etc. What therefore makes sense is a comprehensive land tax based on either the value of the land and/or the cost for the government to provide services to that land. A smartly implemented land tax makes desireable land expensive to hold without developing it. To pay the tax, one must use the land in an economically productive way. If they wish to avoid the penalties, then they must sell the land to either someone willing to develop it or someone willing to pay the tax. Right now, these landlords can keep owning the land without developing it because they pay very little tax to maintain their land rights. Its like an eternal subsidy from the government.

[@rudrajitghosh8257]

Could you please do a video on Asian food security & safety, especially in context of the World Hunger Index.

[@manuelquiero]

These landlords can be traced back to Spanish era. The Spaniards or the catholic priests stole lands front Datus or Kings and then gave the title to themselves.

[@ibejeph]

I just wanted to say I really enjoy your videos.

[@joaquinmisajr.1215]

For several centuries Colonizers held on to vast landholdings in a feudalistic society … instead of converting /transforming those assets into industrial use, since all they cared about was short term profit .

[@AMNG1994]

To be fair to Corazon Aquino, her family members who are major stockholders of Hacienda Luisita were much closer and politically aligned to the Marcos Family than to her. It has been proven time and again that her share of stocks and those of her children were not even 1% and were completely gone by 2010.

[@azuaraikrezeul1677]

They are still part of the problem they have their name.no bitter seed can bear a sweet fruit.

[@AJ-et3vf]

Awesome video! Thank you!

[@evinoshima9923]

Land distribution, Oligopoly, import substitution, corruption, shambolic bureacracy.... all in concert have held Philioppine economic development and created such an unequal distribution of wealth in the Philippines.

[@daniquinz]

Most of the country's lands have spanish family name. Its really the spaniards who exploited the country. If India have England, the Philippines have Spain.

[@theshadow532]

So now I understand why foreigners can't own land in the Philippines. I always thought it was only the government but it's mainly to protect not the Philippines people but the large landowners. Any land comes available it will be grab up by the huge landowners. Because we know the local people can't afford to buy it anyway. But they know the foreigner can. So why create your own competition.

[@surewill8190]

love the channel , thanks again for the info